Obamacare: At Least Dems are Willing to Fight for It

September 30, 2013

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” - Two of the biggest lies so far in Barack Obama’s mendacity-filled presidency

On Halloween Day, 2008 — appropriately enough, since his tenure as president has been a nightmare that makes Freddy Kruger look like Santa Claus — candidate Barack Obama told the American people, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” Well, guess what. He meant it.

As I write this column, we are now five days away from fundamentally transforming the greatest health care system the world has ever seen into the kind of banana republic bureaucracy for which American leftists have longed at least since the days of FDR and Harry Truman. As was the case in the old Soviet Union, today’s Democrats seem enamored with the idea that the best way to make everything “fair” and everyone “equal” is to make us all equally miserable.

John F. Kennedy — a Democrat who, as an advocate for tax cuts to stimulate economic growth, would qualify as a right-of-center Republican today — was fond of saying that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” The philosophy of today’s Dems is more like this: “If you can afford a boat, you must have robbed from some poor person to get it, so let’s just sink all boats to make things fair.”

In a few days, the century-long dream of every utopian-minded socialist from Woodrow Wilson to Hillary Clinton will become a reality. And when it does, those who mocked Sarah Palin for daring to tell us the truth that Obamacare will lead to health care rationing, which will lead to defacto death panels, will have reached another milestone in their march toward “equality.”

Of course, the elites at the top of the bureaucratic food chain will not experience this “equality.” As usual, they have carved out exceptions for themselves. And why not? As George Orwell observed through one of the characters in his biting anti-Stalinist satire, Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Make no mistake. Barack Obama had one ultimate goal for the health care system of the United States of America when he came to power: a single-payer, government-controlled bureaucracy. Consequently, with that goal in mind, everything he has done was aimed at destroying any other entities that offer coverage for health care.

If you doubt this, ask yourself why he opposes Small Business Health Plans, which would allow independently owned businesses to pool together to get the same rates as large corporations. Ask yourself why Obama opposes allowing individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines, just as we are able to do with life, auto, homeowner’s and virtually every other form of insurance. And finally, ask yourself why he wants to drive the cost of health insurance up, not down, which, as surely as gravity makes objects fall to the earth, he knows is inevitable under his plan.

The answer to all these questions, quite simply, is to destroy private sector health insurance as we know it, leaving the federal government as the only game in town. You think it’s unfair that your insurance company won’t cover your heart surgery? Wait until the feds tell you to go home and die because you can’t have the surgery.

Unfortunately, the current crop of congressional Republicans — especially the cowardly GOP “leadership” in the United States Senate — have concluded that opposing Obama’s scheme is politically risky and therefore detrimental to their careers. As the embattled Ted Cruz stood nearly alone for 21 hours on the floor the U.S. Senate, exhibiting the very courage that caused his constituents to send him to Washington last year, a mere handful of his colleagues came to his aid.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects — McCain, Graham, McConnell, Cornyn, etc. — stood on the sidelines attacking Cruz with a viciousness with which they would never go after Obama. Each of them seeking another 15 minutes of fame, they cling to their stature as impotent minority members of a legislative body so useless it cannot even pass a budget.

And they wonder why their poll numbers are in the single digits. At least Obama fights for what he believes in. Come to think of it, sadly, maybe they do, too.

Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself more often than not. His weekly columns are syndicated by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Readers are encouraged to email him at dpatton@cagle.comand/or to follow him on Twitter at @Doug_Patton.